Zelensky to address G7 Summit

Kiev, June 27 (IANS) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will virtually address the G7 Summit in Germany, during which he is expected to urge the delivery of more heavy weapons in the wake of Russia's ongoing war against Kiev.

In his address to the country on Sunday, Zelensky said delaying arms deliveries was "an invitation to Russia to strike again and again", reports the BBC.

"Partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers," he said and called for air defence systems and fresh sanctions against Russia.

The President's plea came after Russia fired a barrage of missile strikes on Kiev, the central city of Cherkasy where one person died, and the Kharkiv region, along with Chernihiv in the north and Zhytomyr and Lviv west of the capital.

The strike on Starychi district in Lviv was just 30 km from the border with Poland, reports the BBC.

On Saturday, the key eastern city of Severodonetsk also fell to Russia, which gave Moscow the control of nearly all of Luhansk region and much of neighbouring Donetsk, the two Russian-backed separatists regions that form the industrial Donbas.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine is top of the G7 agenda and member nations are expected to promise further military support for Kiev and more sanctions on Moscow, says the BBC report.

While German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Russian missile strikes showed it was "right to stand together and support Ukrainians", US President Joe Biden claimed that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was counting on NATO and the G7 to "splinter... but we haven't and we're not going to".

The G7 summit in Bavaria will be followed by a NATO meeting in Spain later in the week at which Zelensky is also expected to speak.